Shaping pharma: The industry's top stories from 2016As the year comes to an end, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, takes stock of the top 10 stories that shaped the pharmaceutical landscape and set the stage for 2017.

Decoding cement's shape promises greener concreteRice University materials scientists develop techniques to control the microscopic shape of cement particles for the bottom-up manufacture of stronger, more durable and more environmentally friendly concrete.

New moms moving toward the bottleNew moms are increasingly using expressed breast milk (either pumped or expressed by hand) instead of directly breastfeeding their babies, according to a UBC study.

Early life stressors adversely influence brain developmentNew brain imaging evidence was advanced in a series of presentations at the recent meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology supporting the long-held belief that stressful early life experiences, such as preterm birth, poverty and lack of familial support, adversely affect brain development.

PIoneering medical geneticist, John M. Opitz, M.D., honored by Republic of GermanySince beginning his medical career in the 1960s, he has defined and documented numerous genetic syndromes, more than a dozen of which bear his name, pioneered phenotype, or the analysis of the physical and biological manifestations of genetic disorders, and laid foundational work for finding genes associated with genetic disorders.

Research into the theoretical bases of future wireless communicationsA Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) scientist, Tobias Koch, has received an ERC Starting Grant, one of the most important grants in Europe for young researchers, to establish the theoretical and mathematical bases that will enable faster and more efficient wireless communications in the future.

Study proposes new protocol for treatment of thalassemiaBrazilian scientists, in an article in the journal Blood, shows that administering the anti-hypertensive drug amlodipine in conjunction with conventional chelation therapy helps combat health problems caused by the buildup of iron in organs

Cellular immunotherapy targets a common human cancer mutationn a study of an immune therapy for colorectal cancer that involved a single patient, a team of researchers at the National Cancer Institute identified a method for targeting the cancer-causing protein produced by a mutant form of the KRAS gene.

Nearly one in five young Ontario adults shows problematic use of electronic devicesCAMH Monitor survey also shows many Ontario adults report texting and driving, and increasing mental distress days As many as 19 per cent of Ontario adults aged 18 to 29 experience moderate to severe problematic use of electronic devices, which includes smartphones, tablets, computers and video game consoles, according to the latest CAMH Monitor survey.

TET proteins drive early neurogenesisThe fate of stem cells is determined by series of choices that sequentially narrow their available options until stem cells' offspring have found their station and purpose in the body.

Knowing one's place in a social hierarchyWhen you start a new job, it's normal to spend the first day working out who's who in the pecking order, information that will come in handy for making connections in the future.

Deep brain stimulation may not boost memoryDeep brain stimulation (DBS) of areas in the brain known to be involved in making memories does not improve memory performance, according to a study by Columbia University researchers published Dec.

Dark matter may be smoother than expectedAnalysis of a giant new galaxy survey, made with ESO's VLT Survey Telescope in Chile, suggests that dark matter may be less dense and more smoothly distributed throughout space than previously thought.

Pollinator habitat program spreads bad seeds with the goodWeed scientists in at least two Midwestern states have been reporting for years that a conservation program meant to provide habitat for pollinating insects is sowing bad seeds -- including seeds of the potentially devastating agricultural weed Palmer amaranth -- along with the good.

The secret slimming effect of sweet potato wasteThe sweet potato pie you eat during the holidays might not be good for your waistline, but according to a new study published in the journal Heliyon, the starchy water left over from cooking the sweet potato could have slimming effects -- at least in mice.

New approach may open up speech recognition to more languagesAt the Neural Information Processing Systems conference this week, researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are presenting a new approach to training speech-recognition systems that doesn't depend on transcription.

How your parenting tactics influence your teen's problem behaviorsIn a new study, published in, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Misaki Natsuaki, psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, and Laura Dimler, a graduate student in psychology at UCR, found that when teens viewed their parents' parenting tactics more negatively than parents did, they showed elevated levels of aggressive behaviors.

Uncovering the secrets of water and ice as materialsWater is vital to life on Earth, yet from a scientific point of view, much remains unknown about water and its many solid phases, which display a plethora of unusual properties and so-called anomalies that, while central to water's chemical and biological importance, are often viewed as controversial.

Atlas of the RNA universe takes shapeIn the last few years, small snippets of RNA, which may have played a key role in the planet's earliest flickering of life, have been uncovered and examined in great detail.

Machine learning enables predictive modeling of 2-D materialsIn a study published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, a team of researchers led by Argonne computational scientist Subramanian Sankaranarayanan described their use of machine learning tools to create the first atomic-level model that accurately predicts the thermal properties of stanene, a 2-D material made up of a one-atom-thick sheet of tin.

Tumor cells are dependent on fat to start metastasisA study headed by Salvador Aznar Benitah, ICREA researcher at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), and published today in Nature identifies metastasis-initiating cells through a specific marker, namely the protein CD36.

Closing the carbon loopResearch at the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering focused on developing a new catalyst that would lead to large-scale implementation of capture and conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) was recently published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Catalysis Science & Technology.

Two UTHealth researchers elected to prestigious scientific associationIn recognition of their efforts to develop new treatments for fungal infections and stress-related chronic illnesses, respectively, Michael Lorenz, Ph.D., and Xiaodong Cheng, Ph.D., of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have been elected fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Greenland on thin ice?First-of-their-kind studies provide new insight into the deep history of the Greenland Ice Sheet, looking back millions of years farther than previous techniques allowed.

Study shows blood products unaffected by drone tripsIn what is believed to be the first proof-of-concept study of its kind, Johns Hopkins researchers have determined that large bags of blood products, such as those transfused into patients every day, can maintain temperature and cellular integrity while transported by drones.

Dad's exposure to phthalates in plastics may affect embryonic developmentA new study led by environmental health scientist Richard Pilsner at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, one of the first to investigate whether preconception exposures to phthalates in fathers has an effect on reproductive success via embryo quality, found that exposures from select chemicals tested were associated with 'a pronounced decrease in blastocyst quality' at an early stage in embryo development.

Brain metastasis persists despite improved targeted treatment for HER2 breast cancerWhile new targeted treatments developed across the past two decades have led to dramatic survival improvements for women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers and collaborators report that rates of breast cancer brain metastasis for women with this disease have not substantially declined.

Scientists can now better diagnose diseases with multiple genetic causesScientists at Baylor College of Medicine, Baylor Genetics, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Texas Children's Hospital are combining descriptions of patients' clinical features with their complex genetic information in a unified analysis to obtain more precise diagnoses of complex diseases, particularly those that involve more than one gene causing the condition.

Safety in darknessWith a little help from chickens and video cameras, scientists have captured live the moment when skin gets darker.

Best Science Podcasts 2019

AnthropomorphicDo animals grieve? Do they have language or consciousness? For a long time, scientists resisted the urge to look for human qualities in animals. This hour, TED speakers explore how that is changing. Guests include biological anthropologist Barbara King, dolphin researcher Denise Herzing, primatologist Frans de Waal, and ecologist Carl Safina.

#534 Bacteria are Coming for Your OJWhat makes breakfast, breakfast? Well, according to every movie and TV show we've ever seen, a big glass of orange juice is basically required. But our morning grapefruit might be in danger. Why? Citrus greening, a bacteria carried by a bug, has infected 90% of the citrus groves in Florida. It's coming for your OJ. We'll talk with University of Maryland plant virologist Anne Simon about ways to stop the citrus killer, and with science writer and journalist Maryn McKenna about why throwing antibiotics at the problem is probably not the solution. Related links: A Review of the Citrus Greening...